› added 2 years ago

227

TIL about William Knibb an abolitionist Jamaican missionary who held a funeral for slavery with the words:"The Monster is dead!"

Read more victorianweb.org

via reddit.com

lYXG TIL when the girl featured on the front cover of Vampire Weekend’s ‘Contra’ album artwork found out about the illegal use of her 26 year old photo, she sued the band. She found out when her daughter brought home a copy of the album one day.
dD4G8 TIL for the ancient Maya, turkeys were considered gifted with exceptional powers and harmful to humans from the nocturnal and dream space. They are portrayed as godlike figures in Maya religious imagery, and at least one Maya ruler included the word for turkey in his royal nickname.
54Zk TIL that US ski jumper Anders Haugen finished 4th at the 1924 Olympics, when 50 years later a Norwegian historian discovered a scoring error was made and Haugen should have gotten the bronze medal, which was handed to him in Norway in 1974 by the daughter of the original bronze medal winner
4XXjN TIL during the division of Berlin, there were still several West Berlin subway lines which passed through parts of East Berlin. They just didn't stop there, leaving behind heavily guarded "ghost stations". Over the years, several citizen of the East managed to get on trains towards the West.
bwZ TIL that in 1995 St. Jude’s Hospital got an anonymous letter containing the $1mil Monopoly piece from the McDonalds promotion game. It was mailed by the Chief of Security, at the company that organized the promotion, after major fraud was uncovered within the company.